


The Faceless Woman

by Ellabean



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22107349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellabean/pseuds/Ellabean
Summary: A young girl named Millie copes with a big change in her life. Told from the girl's perspective.
Kudos: 1





	The Faceless Woman

Millie sat in the back of the room. Her head down, playing with her mother’s locket that was around her still-too-small neck. Now and again, she would glance up at the crowd of people who were dancing, or eating, or sitting on the sidelines like her. But they were all enjoying themselves. Often she would find her father amid the gaiety dancing with an infuriatingly happy smile on his face.

A large strand of the girl’s dark chocolate hair fell in front of her face, covering her left eye entirely. Instead of pushing it back behind her ear like normal, she left it to hang there like a veil blocking out the world. With her other eye, she watched from her seat as a large, ornately decorated cake, almost taller than herself, came out into the room. And then her father and the evil, vain, faceless woman took the knife together and cut the cake. This was followed by vague cheers, lots of smiling, and drinks that she wasn’t allowed to have. But Millie didn’t mind, because she didn’t want any. The stuff was toxic anyway. She just wanted to leave as soon as possible. When everything seemed to be over, the faceless woman left with her father, and an old woman came to take Millie home.

The old woman explained to the girl about how her parents had just gone away on vacation for a while and would be home soon. That they would be sure to give her a big hug when they did. Millie didn’t understand what the old woman meant, because she knew her mother was gone forever and her father was no longer her father. For months he’d been so different, she was half sure he’d been possessed.

She spent the next few days sitting in her room reading books from the big oak bookshelf downstairs. The old woman had made herself at home in the guest bedroom down the hall. Millie didn’t know what the woman did all day, but every once in a while she would hear footsteps approaching her room, meaning the woman was coming to check on her. The girl began to dread these times out of pure annoyance. The old woman would also alert her to meals. But she only ate when the woman went to bed. She would sneak downstairs and quietly search the fridge or pantry for candy or any other sweets she could.

When finally the day came that her father returned, Millie was disappointed to see the faceless woman still following him around. Her father gave her a warm engulfing hug upon their arrival, after which the faceless woman tried to do the same. However, Millie moved away before she could. The woman then forced her into a quick uncomfortable hug. With the woman’s curvy body pushed up to her, the girl immediately felt the need to clean herself of the hug, as if she’d fallen into a pit of beetles.

Her mother had been skinny and short like Millie herself. The faceless woman was so different it angered Millie. Had her father never truly loved her mother? Did this mean he didn’t love her?

Her father suggested bonding together over a game night. To Millie, this sounded like torture. Especially because most of the games had been her mom’s. She wished her mother had taken the games with her so they wouldn’t have to play. Or that she’d taken Millie with her so that she wouldn’t have to be with the faceless woman, who had recently taken the liberty of moving into her parent’s room along with her father.

And so, Millie decided that she would win all the games to show that she was better than the faceless woman, to defend her mom, and to prove that her father didn’t need this new woman at all.

When the time came around to play the games, Millie chose _Jenga_ and won. Then they played _Sorry!_ and she won again. Sometimes the faceless woman would laugh, with her big mouth and bright red lipstick. The girl thought bitterly that she vaguely resembled a clown. As the games went on, Millie kept playing her hardest and winning. Finally, the last game of the night was _The Game Of Life_. Where Millie chose her favorite powder blue car. The faceless woman chose the green car. The girl remembered with a pain in her chest and a swell in her throat, that was the car her mother always chose. As the game progressed, it was much tighter than the other games. In this game, there was more talking involved, but Millie tried to keep it short. At the very end, the faceless woman was left with the choice of either moving back 10 places or forcing another player to move back. Millie knew the faceless woman would never choose her father, so she prepared herself to lose her first game of the night. But then the woman moved the green car back ten places. Two moves later, Millie won the game.

She looked up at the faceless woman, brow furrowed, and noticed the woman’s bright green eyes. Millie knew the woman had thrown the game, but couldn’t think of a sinister reason why. The woman again hugged Millie, but nicer this time than she had before. The girl cautiously patted her back in return, still a bit uncomfortable.

As they all went to their rooms that night, she thought how maybe the woman wasn’t quite so mean as she had thought. Millie’s opinion of her had been based mostly on feelings based on the woman’s appearance. Since whenever she had visited the house before, the girl opted to stay in her room, and so had not learned much about her. As Millie drifted to sleep, she thought of the evils of white lacy icing and bright green plastic cars.


End file.
